In the field of food packaging, it is well known to provide cartons or packaging systems for carrying several smaller containers at once. The packaging system may be in the form of a sleeve containing multiple smaller containers. Often the smaller containers hold any of a variety of food or beverage items. One type of smaller container is a cup with a lid. An example sleeve is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,570,795 which illustrates a sleeve containing two stacked rows of containers. The containers, however, are difficult to remove without destroying the sleeve. For example, removing a container from the bottom row can result in tearing of the sleeve, and can render the sleeve unusable for storing remaining containers.
One prior packaging system using a sleeve is configured to permit improved removal of a desired container. U.S. Pat. No. 6,926,147 describes a sleeve to hold a number of containers. Frangible portions are provided in fold lines adjacent openings in the bottom of the sleeve. The openings extend to the fold lines. When a user wants to remove a cup from the bottom row of the sleeve, the frangible portion can be broken along the fold line to increase the size of the opening to allow the cup to be pulled sideways and removed from the sleeve. Disadvantageously, once the frangible portion has been broken the sleeve is weakened and a cup positioned above the removed cup that subsequently drops into the opening may not be properly restrained from also exiting the sleeve laterally. Additionally, fold lines are usually inherently weak structurally, so a tear along a fold as provided by the frangible portions can have a propensity to continue tearing, and can result in a sleeve unsuitable for storing the remainder of the cups and/or permitting proper dispensing